Serenia Fantasy Review by Zevri

Serenia
Fantasy is a new browser based game being brought over by Koramgame, which
is a Hong Kong based company that hopes to bring games to a more international
group. The game itself tries to set the pace of a more "old school" RPG setting
and atmosphere, but with a MMO feel to it.

The character creation in the game is fairly basic. You're given a choice of
male or female with a set of three different classes to choose from. The classes
are; Warrior, Ranger, and Mage. Each of these classes follows the base archetype
that they're based off of, with Warrior excelling at physical and HP stats and
Mage being well, a mage. Besides the choice of gender and class, the character
creation pretty much ends there; you aren't able to customize any of the looks
of your character at all. One redeeming thing on the character creation is that
you can see a growth chart which while the classes speak for themselves in terms
of how they will grow; it gives you a better understanding of this through the
chart.

True to the selling point of an "old school RPG", the game does feel that way
when you jump into the world. The graphics bring about a bit of nostalgia of old
JRPGs that you may have played back in the 90s. Is it good or bad that it has
that dated feel? Well, considering that is what they were going for, it is a bit
of a good thing. Graphically, everything from the monsters to the landscapes is
done fairly well and smooth, but suffers from some errors in layering which
sometimes can make it look like your characters head is going through a fence
and other issues like that.

Combat in the game is lackluster at best. This is another one of those games
that really aim towards the casual market in how the game plays out. The combat
for the most part is automated, and even has a build in bot for those who don't
want to bother grinding themselves. When attacking monsters it does seem that it
takes partial control as the skills set in the bot are often auto-used in the
manual combat as well. You do still need to manually use the skills that the bot
will not allow you to set, but that isn't enough to make the combat really feel
interesting. I often found myself using the bot more than I would play manually
as there really didn't feel like a point to do it any other way. Now for those
more casual, the actual bot in the game was fairly well done. Not only can you
offer multiple actions for when your HP/MP reach certain points, but you can
specify the monsters you want it to fight, and the type of loot you want it to
pick up; which is a bit more detailed than some of the other auto fighting bots
that you see in these types of games.

The combat does have a bit of a unique flare to it from one of the main
features of the game, however. That is the, I guess you could call it their "pet
system" in the game. That is when you fight monsters; at least on a good portion
of them you have a chance of picking up a spirit egg. This has a small chance of
releasing the monster in it which you can equip like a piece of gear. They also
do give bonuses to your stats, which do help out a bit in how much damage you do
and can take. Overall it is a neat system, which really isn't a new element to
online games, but one that is definitely underused. One thing that is
particularly well done about it is how they do allow the recycling of those pets
that you don't really need anymore, since you can combine or offer them up to
help level up your current spirit, which is a fair bit better than selling them
off like throw away. It also has a bit of a fun element to it, where you can
actually transform into your pet and fight that way. It seems more for vanity
than actual use, since their stats tend to be a lot lower than yours, but still,
it is just something fun you can do when roaming around.

The skill based system is also fairly neat, but doesn't really shine thanks
to the combat. It works more off of the more you use it, the more it levels
principle. Giving you the ability to get all of the skills you want through
skill books, but having you manually level them up by using them to really make
them flourish. This also makes it a bit more forgiving in that there really is
no wrong way to build your character, you get all of the skills laid out in
front of you, and you build up the ones you like and keep using them, but you
can always switch it up whenever you want. They did think of those who play more
casually, which is pretty much all of their players, which is why they have
something called Magipoints, which can be spent on improving skills. Since the
bot doesn't work all of your skills, only single target ones, this allows you to
level up those or ones that the bot didn't use at all. The points are gathered
through combat and some items.

One of the features that really makes this game shine, is crafting. Not in
the crafting itself where you just use materials you have and click craft, no.
Well, I mean, it is nice and all and it is rather simple and straightforward,
which is something that is nice in games and offers an easier learning curve for
players. But that really isn't the best aspect of it, what is the best, is how
they labeled the materials for when you want to craft something. When you want
to craft something typically you see the list of items you need and how many you
have of each, but what if you don't have one of the items and you don't know
what drops it? Well, here that have an encyclopedia of sorts for the monsters
and what they drop in the game. In the crafting menu you can click on the item
you're lacking and see what monster(s) drop it. Better yet, you can use that to
auto-walk to where the creature is to try to farm the item that you need. It is
a fairly neat and detailed system, and even includes the monsters level,
animation of what it looks like, level, location, and the other items it drops
with the chance of it being dropped.

The game is fairly neat in concept and does offer some nice set of features
which could teach a few other games a thing or two. The only real negative
aspect is how slow paced the game can be for those who play a bit more
regularly, and how much you really need to AFK farm to keep up casually. It does
feel a bit like the game is stuck between identities going half for the casual
market, and half for the more hardcore. That hurts the game in that it makes it
easier for players do get bored and end up just walking away from it.

I have been playing mmos since about 1999, and haven't stopped since, and I
cannot even remember when I started console/pc gaming. I'm an avid gamer who
does dive back into the real world from time to time. My all time goal is to
start my own business, but that is taking a side step as I am going through
college.